A BLACK AMBASSADOR FOR SOUTH AFRICA

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

President Reagan`s consideration of Robert J. Brown to be ambassador to South Africa is a dramatic gesture. Whether it will be a meaningful gesture depends on what policy the 51-year-old North Carolina public relations executive would be directed to carry out in his new assignment.

Mr. Brown is black. That fact has brought howls of delight from those who think it would embarrass South Africa`s white minority regime. Actually, it would not. South Africa has had black ambassadors before, though never before from the United States. The white-minority regime routinely grants higher status to black visitors than to its own black citizens. It can easily give Mr. Brown a grand reception for the sake of favorable international publicity. The anti-apartheid movement here and abroad does not appear to be impressed, either. Many see this as a convenient way for the Reagan administration to buy time for its ailing policy of ''constructive

engagement'' while pressure mounts for tougher economic and diplomatic sanctions. And black South Africans certainly will be no more willing to accept ''constructive engagement'' just because the policy is delivered by a black diplomat.

For Mr. Brown`s appointment to be more than just a gesture, he should make a point of rubbing elbows with more than South Africa`s white leadership. He should carry out the administration`s newly professed desire to expand its contacts with representatives of the black majority, particularly Oliver Tambo and other leaders of the banned African National Congress.

A man with Mr. Brown`s interpersonal skills can go a long way to make such contacts productive. Though he has no experience in international diplomacy, he is known to be very diplomatic. The former Nixon staffer has been endorsed by such politically diverse spokespersons as Atlanta`s Mayor Andrew Young and North Carolina`s Sen. Jesse Helms. Mr. Brown is extremely respected for his skills in diplomacy. If appointed, he should use every ounce of those skills to make the United States` opposition to South Africa`s hateful apartheid system felt.